1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a seat for use in an automobile and the like and, more particularly, to an industrially advantageous method for manufacturing a seat which is mainly composed of a pad of foam material and a trim cover assembly for covering the pad and is conveniently used in an automobile and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, the above-mentioned type of method for manufacturing a seat requires a process of producing a trim cover assembly in which sheet material is used or cut into piece members having forms corresponding to the respective side surface configurations of a pad, and these piece members are then sewn together into a bag-like configuration which is suitable for covering the pad.
Accordingly, in the above-mentioned conventional seat manufacturing method, the process of producing the trim cover assembly not only requires a large number of steps such as a cutting step, a sewing step and the like, but also incurs a cutting loss of the sheet material, resulting in an expensive trim cover assembly and thus an expensive vehicle seat. In addition, the prior art manufacturing method is found disadvantageous in that it is not suitable for speedy mass production.
In order to eliminate the drawbacks found in the above-mentioned manufacturing method, there is a good reason for change of the manufacturing method of the trim cover assembly from by means of sewing to by means of knitting.
However, in general, knitted goods have a larger percentage of elongation and thus, when used as a trim cover assembly, they may be loosened to produce wrinkles thereon, which fails to provide a sufficient close contact with its associated pad. It is true that the close contact problem can be solved by using fibers of high stretching properties such as polyurethane fibers (e.g., Spandex) and the like, but such highly-stretching fibers are expensive and very poor in weatherability. Therefore, when they are employed as the trim cover assembly of the vehicle seat which is to be used for longer periods of time, they can deteriorate and thus reduce their own performances.